AVIF is an innovative online charity assisting with sustainable development via online and onsite volunteering in Kenya, East Africa.
Being virtual means negligible administration costs for worldwide impact. We believe in efficiency, honesty and transparency .. oh and we do not charge fees.

Friday, January 11, 2008

Many thanks to Justin Hartman aka Afrigator, a major social media aggregator and directory built especially for African digital citizens who publish and consume content on the Web.

Afrigator will be bannering the Kenyan Crisis initiative of MamaMikes, allowing you to contribute towards helping displaced families and victimsof the crisis by purchasing shopping vouchers that will be used to buyfoodstuff, medicine, blankets, water, sanitary materials andtoiletries, toys, clothes, shoes and other necessary items to bedistributed by the Kenya Red Cross.There is NO Service Charge on any of these items and ALL contributions will be received by the Kenya Red Cross for distribution.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

MamaMikes have asked if we can help spread the word for their Crisis initiative :

Ontheir front page people can now buy a voucher for Kenyans in Distress.These vouchers will be used to buy much needed supplies fordistribution by the Kenya Red cross. The vouchers come in variousdenominations from $10 to $75. No service fee will be charged for theseorders.

Monday, January 07, 2008

Thanks to Erik of WhiteAfrican.com for passing on this service from SafariCom. Sambaza (meaning to share in swahili) allows SafariCom prepaid customers to share airtime with their family and friends; any amount between Kshs. 50 and Kshs. 10,000.

How ?

1. Create a new SMS message and enter the airtime value you want to share, followed by #, followed by the mobile number you want to top-up.

2. Send to 140

3. Wait for confirmation by SMS

4. The person receiving the airtime gets a receipt message on successful top-up.

We just tested it and it works instantly.

For full details click here. Note only Safaricom customers i.e. prepaid can use this service.

Mama Mikes provides a solution to the problem of sending help to Kenyans. Through their website customers can order vouchersfor prominent Kenyan supermarkets such as Nakumatt, and Uchumi, buycellular airtime, pay electricity bills or school fees,give culturally relevant gifts for special occasions such as a goat, oreven buy cakes, flowers, and jewellery, among many other items andservices which are constantly being updated.

I wanted to promote the wonderful job that MamaMikes are doing but the crisis in Kenya has meant that they are currently totally swamped. They have a 48 hour backlog of airtime top-ups but are working on clearing this right now.

Its a wonderful service which we'll be recommending to all. Reality is that they literally deliver goods by hand so need a more efficient network which we're hoping to help with, as well as an increase in market ~ an increase in profit ~ allowing them to invest in more staff .. and so the wheel turns.

Please pass this on.Online airtime Kikwe is currently offline but they are working on it right now.